BIGELOW, ERASTUS BRIGHAM

born April 2, 1814, West Boylston, Mass., U.S. died Dec. 6, 1879, Boston, Mass. American industrialist, noted as the developer of the power carpet loom and as a founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From age 10, Bigelow was obliged to work and to forgo a formal education. At the age of 23 he invented his first loom for lace manufacture. Bigelow followed this with other power looms for weaving a variety of figured fabrics, tapestry carpeting, and ingrain carpeting. In 1843 he and his brother Horatio established a gingham mill, around which the town of Clinton, Mass., grew. Several years later, he founded the Bigelow carpet mills there. From 1845 to 1851 Bigelow developed his greatest invention, a power loom for the manufacture of Brussels and Wilton carpets. His inventions provided a large impetus to carpet manufacture in Europe as well as in the United States. In two authoritative works on economics (1862 and 1877), Bigelow defended protective tariffs. He was a leading member of a committee appointed in 1861 to implement proposals that led to the establishment of MIT.